The year was 2056...

And this gag is overused by chapter three. Fabulous.

It was the third day of the school year, and it was business like usual. Almost sleep in, wake up because of Bachi and Satoru, eat Izuru's food, get to school, kissy kissy the girlfriend, same stuff as the last two chapters.

Except Kikka was here now! And having to fourthwheel the clingy couple made her regret not sleeping in like yesterday!

"Seriously, you two? In front of my Idosfaro?" She asked.

"I was gonna ask the same but regarding my hot dogs." Satoru added.

Harui broke her kiss with Yukie to hit the two with a scummy grin and an even scummier laughed.

"You two complain because you don't know how it feels to have a girlfriend. Sucks to suck. Shut up and come back to me when you feel the touch of a woman."

"Saying that with such an expression is rude, Harui." Yukie sighed, pinching Harui's cheek. "Apologize to Satoru and Kikka-san."

"B-but they were asking for it!"

"Apologize."

"Fine, I'm sorry..."

"Ha ha, you got a collar, you got a collar." Satoru and Kikka teased in unison, both pointing at Harui with their own scummy grins.

"...for you two being such loveless-!"

Harui became frozen solid.

Yukie pinching her cheek could hold her back. But Yukie placed her hand on her cheek turned her into a block of ice shaped like a Vanguard protagonist.

"W-wow... Yukie-san, you really are amazing... To be able to silence the evil tanuki with just a touch..." Kikka muttered. "You are a goddess, Yukie-san!"

"Yeah, she's the number one tanuki charmer, alright. Even before they got together, Harui would do whatever Yukie asked."

"Seriously? You tanuki, you left that detail out! You suck at narrating!"

You tell me.

"Oh please, I left a bunch of details out." Harui shrugged it off. "You think it stops at me doing whatever Yukie asked and me losing an eye? Just wait until you find out how I topped nationals after finding Yukie."

"Yeah, my gut tells me that one's bull, you can't trick me that easily." Kikka deadpanned. "I'm going to class."

"Enjoy your silly class about the socio-econimical state of Japan in a post-D Format world. I'm gonna be doing actually important stuff." Harui said with a smug smile that radiated superiority.

"Sleeping through history class isn't important stuff, Ibuki." Satoru snickered, patting the white haired's shoulder as he followed Kikka inside.

"Yes it is! I need my ten hour beauty sleep, even if in segments!"

"Ten hours of sleep for this?" Yukie asked, once again caressing Harui's cheek. "This beauty overwhelms me so much already... My mind cannot even begin to imagine what the true form of such beauty is... The way one's eyes burn when looking as the sun, so would mine burn from such a sight... Yet, for even a moment, I would not deviate my vision until it was burned into my memory."

Harui shyly looked away with a small pout. If she looked at her reflection in Yukie's eyes, she'd have to come to terms with how red she had turned.

"You're unfair, you flirt..."

Yukie chuckled and began heading into the school grounds, pulling Harui along by holding her hand.

"I learned from the best." She admitted. "The kendo club will restart today. You can go home after school ends if you want."

"A-absolutely not." Harui said, briefly shaking her head to push away the flusteredness. "I'll find something to do in the meanwhile. I heard there's a cool spot that serves some savory desserts near the school, might aswell check it out."

"If I didn't knew any better, I'd wager you went behind Izuru-san's back to open an establishment for you to visit as an excuse to stay close to school while I do something."

"I wish! Izuru said I gotta be responsible with the family money, whatever that means. Apparently buying crates of cards is fine but investing on small businesses that can keep me occupied while I wait for you aren't. Stupid asakusan. Hope he bites his tongue."

Izuru was at home eating some instant ramen at the time. He did, in fact, bite his tongue. And so did Ibuki, she was home too.

Morning went by like usual, just more classes that spent more time introducing the content that would be studied on them during the year, more Kikka being distracted thinking about Vanguard and more Yukie looking at Harui napping through the classes.

But once the bell rung for lunch and the usual four suspects gathered at Kikka's desk to head out together, Satoru intervened.

"Let's ditch the rooftop today. I know a cool spot to have lunch today."

"Are you gonna take us to that high class elite Vanguard restaurant Jiei takes you to? Are you?! Are you?!" Harui asked.

"Absolutely not, you're the one who can afford going there." Satoru deadpanned.

"I need an invitation and Izuru is an anti-invitation forcefield!"

"I believe it's Jiei who has the invite, not Satoru." Yukie spoke up.

"High class Vanguard what...?" Kikka asked, lightly sweatdropping.

"Don't think too much about it. But you're on the right track, tanuki."

"We're going to a fancy dinner? I hope the Rebellion's not your idea of fancy, they're always yelling about carrots."

"We can't leave school during lunch break, dumbass." The white haired retorted. "The right track is Jiei."

"My brother?" Yukie asked.

"Yeah. Uekoshi said she wasn't sure he existed, so let's go hang with him at the greenhouse during lunch. Besides, that's the one place I got an invitation for."

"Invitation? For a greenhouse?" Kikka asked.

"Jiei's the gardening club's boss and a hard ass about who and who doesn't get to visit their place. Before he joined them, the greenhouse used to be hijacked by dumb delinquents, and needless to say, that didn't fly under his radar. Sent their asses packing, keeps sending them packing whenever they try to hog the greenhouse again." Harui explained, arms crossed with a cheeky grin. "That's how we got himself to be worth twenty five million points as The Gardener."

"He's worth more than you? I thought you were the hyper proactive one with this whole point thing... Are you a fraud, tanuki?"

"S-shut it, Probie! I got other stuff to do in my life! Besides, that guy got a head start, he's been doing it since middle school!"

"I bet the real reason is that Jiei's a nice guy that makes the fangirls lose their marbles while you just lose all fans." Satoru snickered.

"Screw the fangirls, the only fan I need is right here!" Harui huffed, lifting Yukie's hand. "She's my sponsor, my supporter, my fan, my groupie, my best girl, all roled into one! She's like a swiss army knife but hella cute and hella pretty!"

"Maybe I learned how to flirt from someone else..." Yukie sweatdropped with a small chuckle.

So to Jiei's it was.

To call Heiwa's greenhouse big would be an understatement. The facility, which owned its creation to the student council lead by a kind girl, a cunning rich girl and her tiny whisk-obsessed boyfriend and King, housed four sections, each slightly bigger than a classroom, with paths between them leading to the center of the greenhouse, where there a couple of couches and a table.

Vegetables, flowers, and even a few trees, all came together with the place's advanced ventilation to form a cool snd humid environment that was akin to a real forest.

Managing it was a tall order, but the gardening club, composed of Heiwa Academy and Heiwa Middle students alike, made it all work, specially with the one who rose to become their leader by their side.

"You gotta be kidding me... T-this place is huge!" Kikka exclaimed. "This is almost the size of a floor or something! And it feels so moist too..."

"State of the art ventilation. Some of the freshest tech Ryuzaki & Co. have to offer. Heiwa may be no school on an island, but with donations for stupidly rich patrons like Izuru and the Bans, it can have stuff like this. It may not happen in our high school life time, but this school will become a giant that'll put those fancy schools like Setsuna and GEN to shame. The kicker? No social stratification. We're all Drachma dropouts under the same roof!" Harui laughed.

"The names for each class over there are most curious..." Yukie hummed, rubbing her chin.

"Ryuzaki probably invested alot of money into the joint so he got naming rights or something. I mean, who would ever would name their Royalty Dust? That sounds like an insult."

"You three done?" Satoru asked. "That sounds like something you can ask Nozomi whenever we got to the Mahapadma again."

"Yeah, fair enough. Come on Probie, it's time you see Jiei exists for yourself."

"I said I was sorry about that already..."

Under the echoing sound of shears snipping, the four headed down one of the paths towards the heart of the greenhouse, where the one they came to meet was, crouched with his back to them, doing some work on one of the bushes that surrounded the central area.

"Yo, big oaf! We came to visit!" Harui called out.

One last snip.

And then, in a light yet swift motion, the shears were swung at her neck, meeting and clashing with the sickle that stopped them.

"You're getting slower, sister."

"Your sense of humour is getting duller, brother." Yukie grunted, pushing the shears away.

"Uhm... H-he totally kinda attacked Harui, didn't he, right..." Kikka sweatdropped.

"Nah, Jiei would've pulled back if Yukie didn't block it. The Kibas are like superhumans with sharp objects, there's a reason they get katanas when they turn fifteen." Satoru shrugged it off. "Hey, Jiei."

"They're family treasures. We've been getting them from the same clan of backsmiths from Hokkaido since the days Kyoto was the capital." Yukie explained.

"Kyoto was the capital?" Kikka asked.

"You spent most of your life in some backwards medieval country and it shows." Harui scoffed.

"Germany isn't medieval!"

"Off track much?" Satoru asked amidst a brief glance at the bickering girls. "Red's the Uekoshi I told you about. Put down the shears and say hi properly."

Like requested, Jiei placed the shears next to his other gardening equipment and got out of his crouching position, allowing for his towering shadow to be cast upon Kikka. For the youngest of the five Kibas, he was also the biggest.

"Kiba Jiei. Nice to meet you, Uekoshi Kikka-san."

And Kikka, amidst her half speechless half muttering state, threw out the first out she could think off.

"H... Hunk..."

That's not the right word that starts in H.

Harui and Yukie took a step back and moved closer to exchange some whispers. They even covered their mouths, as if that'd help.

"Pendulum?" Harui asked.

"Pendulum." Yukie nodded.

"I had a sneaky feeling. Makes you wonder how someone playing both teams can't score in a goal."

"Y-y-y-y-you-! S-shut up, shut up, shut the Flagburg up!" Kikka yelled out, doing a wonderful job at hiding her crimson blush.

Moving past that moment, the group sat on the couches to start eating lunch. Jiei and Satoru took one, while the three girls took one of the other couches.

"I-ignore that little... Moment." Kikka spoke up. "It's nice to finally meet you, Jiei-kun. I've heard about you from these three. I actually wasn't sure you existed since..."

"Harui's unreliable storytelling skills made an appearance?" Jiei asked.

"Hey!" Harui barked.

"Yes!"

"My storytelling skills are great! I'd make a banger narrator or something!"

Only one of us is narrating this book and it isn't you, you fraud!

"I figured." The tall boy chuckled. "The tanuki may leave my words out of her stories, but I can assure you I'm real."

"Yeah, that tanuki's something, alright... How does she dating your sister not make you worry?"

"I'm sitting right here! You're lucky you got Yukie between us, otherwise I'd pinch you with my chopsticks!"

"You'd do that regardless!"

"It's Harui, I don't have a reason to worry. She's not as deep into the current generation Sawada scum pipeline as the other two."

"The... Huh?"

"Have you seriously forgot everything I told you? Izuru and Ryuuga are big time scum." Harui laughed. "Izuru especially. At least Ryuuga had some positives. But me? I'm a saint compared to those two."

"You show your affection towards this Izuru person in a really weird way..." Kikka sweatdropped.

"I call bull on the saint bit." Satoru snickered as he took a sip of his soda. "How's the garden been? Still a better lunching spot than the roof?"

"You're in it, you tell me." Jiei replied. "Where there are people, there's noise. That's why I stay here."

"I'm sure the plants appreciate your company." Yukie quietly scowled.

"They're wonderful companions."

"But can they cardfight? Bet they can't. Harui gang one, grass zero. And people say we need to touch it. Bleh. I'll touch grass once it learns to do some sick combo turns." Harui declared. "What's so good about plants, anyway?"

"Pickled peppers." Jiei said.

"...maybe plants aren't so bad."

"Peppers? Yuck." Kikka stuck her tongue out.

"What? Take that back! Peppers are great! You can eat them raw, you can cook them, you can turn them into sauce, name one more versatile vegetable!"

"Carrots."

"Bullcrap."

"No, she's on to something." Satoru intervened. "You can boil, grill, and even sautee carrots. Did you ever boil a pepper?"

"No. But can you pickle a carrot?"

"Yeah. You can also put carrots in soups, sauces, even more niche stuff like stuffing."

"I don't wanna hear it from the guy deep frying eggplants. Yukie, Jiei, back me up. Hit the Probie with the combined force of the Kiba mighty!"

"Asparagus." The twins said.

And then came the awkward stares from the other three. They silently agreed it was best if the vegetable discourse ended here. No amount of dialogue could match the combined strength of people who liked asparagus.

"Harui told me you got a title, Jiei-kun. Are you interesting in the leaderboard aswell?" Kikka asked.

"I couldn't care less about them." Jiei answered, putting his empty bento away. "I never fought to carve my name into history. I don't have the ambition others have. But I don't mind the title. It's just a silly side effect of keeping this garden safe from idiots. And well... I am a gardener."

"Hogging so many points by not moving an inch from his favourite spot... This era's cruel like an old hag." Harui sighed.

"I'm sure you'd be up in the twenty millions like him if you weren't such a ray of sunshine to your opponents." Satoru said.

"Oh zip it, the masses are suckers for confidant people that are cool as hell. The bitches line up to get a clear glimpse of me."

"Being lined up also makes it easier to cut them out." Yukie added.

"You bet!" The white haired giggled, kissing Yukie's cheek before laying her head on her shoulder. "Cut them to your heart's content, I only got eyes for one very lucky gal."

"Yukie-san, you're really scary at times..." Kikka sweatdropped. "Have you always been a plant guy, Jiei-kun?"

"No. I just came across gardening as a hobby last year and it stuck. And after three siblings who work at a garage, it was about time one of the five had a green thumb instead of one muddied with car oil."

"Really? With how pretty this garden is, I'd assume you've been doing this your whole life."

"After all the stories about how Jiei turned the gardening club around, it's hard to believe he only began last right." Satoru cackled. "You've been in the club for what, eight months? Nine?"

"Something like that. Gardening... It's hard to put it into words. The feeling of making the world a more beautiful place is unique."

"Beautiful?"

"Yeah." Jiei nodded. "Look around you. All the plant life around you is beautiful. You could remove us caretakers and it'd remain beautiful. The trees you plant in a forest after the old ones burn down, the plants you keep at your home to keep you company, and even the flowers you leave at someone's grave or at a site of an accicent- All of it is an unique type of beauty that makes the world look better."

"But... Isn't that just trying to ignore the problem?"

"Correct. This beauty is just mask that lessens the blow. The old trees still burned down. You still are alone. Someone still died. Someone was still on an accident."

"Ignore him Uekoshi, this buttface's pulling your leg." Satoru laughed. "Don't trust a guy who spends all his time touching dirt and smelling flowers to get all philosophical."

Yukie interjected the conversation by suddenly getting up, accidently bringing Harui along since she was stuck to her arm like a bear trap by now.

"Excuse me, but I need to go to the bathroom. I'll head for class afterwords. Thanks for having us, Jiei."

"Thanks for coming, Yukie." Jiei replied.

"Oh, well then, I guess I'm taking a leak earlier." Harui shrugged and went along with her girlfriend. "Seeya next time, Jiei! Don't eat any dirt!"

"I won't. Try to not piss off King Tonitrus while you're out and about."

"I'll do nothing but that!"

After waving the two girls goodbye and setting her now empty bento next to her, Kikka looked over at Satoru and Jiei to make them a question.

"Who's King Tonitrus?"

"You've probably heard about the Royalty system while doing all that article binging yesterday, right?" Satoru replied.

"Yeah. Is the King of Heiwa's Royalty really called Tonitrus?"

"That's his title."

"His real name is Ryuden Daiki." Jiei added.

"Yeah, guy's a second year. Volunteers at the school cafeteria every lunch, you've probably seen him already. Everyone says he's a good guy, so don't go with Ibuki's schtick of pissing him off."

"Why would she go out of her way to annoy a Royalty member?" Kikka asked, but then immediately sweatdropped. "Nevermind, I think I know the answer..."

"Not every Royal enjoys getting trashtalked by some girl who just finished middle school last month claiming to be better than all of them." Satoru explained. "Granted, she did piss off the Queen into challenging her two months ago and beat her ass, so if it worked once, it might aswell work four more times."

Kikka sighed.

"Yeah, I don't know what I was expecting from that tanuki..."